Ranko swam happily, her mermaid tail propelling her forward through the turquoise water and a decor of coral and colorful tropical fish. She and her human doppelganger Ranma were approaching an oceanic ridge. She looked back at him, it was clear how much he struggled in this female body of his. He flailed his arms like he was swimming in jello, like his every movement came half as naturally to him as they did to her. And, of course, this sadness in his eyes. The one he would never admit to having, that she could see in there clear as day.
She slowed down with a twirl, letting him catch up. “Why do you insist so much on staying human?” she asked.
“Ya don’t get it, Ranko. Unlike ya, I’m real, so I gotta stay real, ya know?” He gave her a resigned smile, empty of any emotion.
The more they approached the ridge, the warmer the water got. Bubbles of oxygen were starting to make their way out of the rocky ground around them.
“Like, I gotta be human for pops, right? That’s what he wants me to be... and it’s kinda what I am ‘nyways. Can’t fake what I was born as,” he continued.
“Well, who says you have to live for dad? I wanted the tail, so I gave myself the tail. Plus, this is the land of dreams here, we can be whatever we want and nobody will be the wiser!” She offered him a smile, trying to convince him.
Ranma scratched the back of his neck. When he didn’t focus on how to move himself forward, he managed it much better, Ranko noticed. “...Guess you’re right, but… I’m scared if I try, I ain’t wanna go back. And I’ll have to, ya know. At some point or another.”
As he passed over the ridge, the water was warm enough to trigger his transformation back. His hair turned black, his chest flattened, his manhood was regained, and the sadness in his eyes grew thricefold. Ranko followed suit, traversing over the landmark as quickly as she could.
Ranma eyed her with confusion, before pointing his index in her direction. “Why didn’t ya turn back?”
Ranko smiled. “I’m always a woman in my mind.”
“But the curse…?” he asked.
“Why would the curse have to work in our dreams?” she replied with another question.
The response gave him pause. “But in that case ya should be a man!”
She shook her head, passing him by. “Well, I chose otherwise.”
He stood still for a second, before swimming after her. “I wish I had that liberty…”
The ocean quaked with a heavy growl as Ranko felt the wind get knocked out of her.
Ranko — Ranma immediately opened his eyes at the sudden awakening. Odd, why had that dream been from the perspective of the mermaid instead of him, this time? Well, it felt like it made sense, somehow, but it shouldn’t, right?
Trying to stand up, he found the cause of the grumble as well as his breathing difficulties. Ryoga was collapsed on top of him, snoring, with gymnastic clubs still in his hands. Had he stayed up all night working on his moves? The tournament was today…
Oh… Well, Ranma pulled himself out from underneath his friend, then wrapped an arm around him as he shifted his blanket to cover them both. They could take a few more minutes of shut-eye.
Akane’s eyes drifted open, awakened by the chirps of morning birds. She felt quite refreshed after a week of exercising different from her usual routine, almost to the point that she could head back to school and shrug off most of the jeers about her sexuality she knew to expect. Well, not that there had been any yet, but they would come, eventually, she was sure of that. The moment she would lower her guard.
Most importantly, today was the day of the competition, and the last thing she wanted was the two idiot boys to ruin their chances at winning by sleeping in late and turning their group into a no-show.
After putting on some slippers, she headed down to the dojo, opened the door, then looked in the corner where their sleeping mats had been set up.
Something about seeing them huddled together under the same blanket annoyed her a bit. Then she imagined if Ranma had been in his girl form and it made her blood boil.
Ranma suffered a second rude awakening as a bucket of cold water was dumped on him, triggering the usual prickling feeling of the curse activating. The water wasn’t just cold in fact, it was glacial! He shivered as he snapped up, rubbing his hands on his arms. Ranma looked up and met Akane’s cold glance. “‘Kane! What was that for, ya ill-tempered tomboy!?” he growled. When he looked back down and noticed Ryoga, now adorned with his cute flat snout, clung around his torso, he yelped and pushed him away, shaking the pig boy out of his sleeping trance for a moment.
“Mhw…! Mh-what’s happenin’…” Ryoga muttered, his snout sniffing ildly. “Izzit morning already…?”
Akane planted her face in her hand, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
After a quick breakfast and a teapot for Ryoga, the trio headed for the gym, Akane forcing them into a jog hoping to stir the pig boy to attention, to no avail. She hoped for anything to happen and snap him awake; he was their best chance at winning the tournament.
As she arrived in front of the building, her nose was assaulted by the smell of a much too flowery perfume, and she instantly regretted her wish.
“OH HO HO HO HO HO!” laughed Kodachi as she swung the door open. “My oh my, Tendo Akane! You seem to be in quite the foul mood! Are you sure you are at the best of your abilities for this competition?”
“Can it, Kuno!” Akane snapped back.
“And who might you be teaming with?” Kodachi smirked, approaching a Ranma making himself as small as he could behind Akane’s back. The Kuno sister’s smile faded as her expression got serious. “Oh. You’ve come with your friend,” she continued, heavily emphasizing the word. “Don’t worry, if anybody gives you... unsavory trouble for it, least of all my brother, I will put them back in their place! It’s a promise!” She placed her hand on Akane’s shoulder, who batted it away swiftly.
“Look, we really need to get into uniform—” Akane attempted to explain, only to be cut off by a girlish wail as Kodachi’s gaze erred onto Ryoga.
“EEEEEEEE! My my my my my my!!” The gymnast bounced straight towards Ryoga and stopped herself inches away from his face, an enormous grin on her own. “Why didn’t you tell me you had the precious romantic baby boy on your team!?”
The sudden shrieking into his face finally managed to make a dent in Ryoga’s drowsiness. “H-hey, I don’t like being called that…”
“Say, is your boyfriend with you!? I assume you couldn’t dream of spending more time than necessary away from your fated love!” Kodachi joyfully exclaimed.
Akane pressed her palm against her face.
“B-b-b-boyfriend!!?” Ryoga stuttered out as if three cups of coffee had hit him at once, his face looking pale.
Ranko, as Akane recognized was Ranma’s current mode, raised his hand meekly. “Erm… Kodachi, if I could clear up the misunderstanding here, I’m straight…”
Akane landed the ever elusive double facepalm combo.
Kodachi blinked a few times, staring at Ranko. “I know that, dear, that’s why I’m doing my best to clear up that you're not romantically involved with your dear friend Akane.”
“...Did you forget you were in your girl form, Ranma…?” Akane whispered to her fiancé with what little patience she had left.
“Uh?” Ranko glanced down at himself. “Ah! Oh, I’m such a clutz. It just felt so natural I didn’t think to check…”
“Anyway, I hope I will get to see your brother in the spectating crowd. He must be informed of the blessing I have offered his amorous adventure!” Kodachi waved at the group as she headed back inside. “See you in the finals!”
“Every time I talk to one of the Kunos I can feel one of my hairs turn gray,” Akane grumbled under her breath.
With Ryoga now back at full energy, the three of them hurried to a changing room. Ranma came in behind Akane after she opened the door, spotting Nabiki already waiting for them inside, sitting on a bench set in front of a rack of lockers.
“There you three are.” Nabiki waved, before picking up a package at her feet and throwing it towards Ranma. “Hey, Ranko, catch!”
“Hmm?” Ranko caught it in midair and looked at the bundle of cloth in cheap store plastic packaging. “What is this?”
“Panties and a bra,” Nabiki replied with a smirk. Ranko’s face reddened instantly. “Told you it’d be my treat, right? Wouldn’t want you to go commando in leotard. That’d be extremely uncomfortable.”
Ranko hid her face behind her bangs. Her brain having fried, she relied on her instincts instead: never turn down a gift, and be polite. “T-thank you…”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yeah, yeah. Win that competition for me now, alright?” She patted her sis and Ranko on their shoulders as she passed them by, then pulled on Ryoga’s hand, bringing him outside. “Give the girls some privacy, big boy.”
“Why’s everyone insisting so much on that word today…” Ryoga grumped, following her with a defeated expression on his face. Ranko just had the time to see Nabiki’s eyebrows shoot up in amused surprise before the door closed.
She turned her head back towards Akane, her knees shivering. She held the package against her chest, not sure what to do with it.
Akane sat on the bench, lifted her shirt off of herself and threw a glance at Ranko. “Open it and get dressed. We don’t have much time.”
“I mean, are you okay with, uh… changing next to me…?” Ranko averted her eyes from Akane’s chest. It was to respect her privacy, yes. She definitely didn’t feel self-conscious.
Akane muttered something Ranko didn’t fully catch, about it being fine as long as she didn’t ‘switch’? Whatever she meant by that. Ranko sat down at the opposite end of the bench and threw her clothes off as quickly as she could, before opening the plastic wrap, looking at the plain underwear with much too tangled feelings, and slipping them on.
After putting on the leotard and confirming Akane had done the same, she reached for Akane’s hand and gripped it firmly, before heading out to let Ryoga have his turn to change.
Akane finally breathed a sigh of relief after they had confirmed their presence at the roll call. They had ten minutes before their first match and she very much intended to spend them calming her beating heart.
“Hmm?” she heard Ranma mutter as he looked ahead at the crowd in the main gymnasium. She tried to follow his gaze and immediately took a discountenanced step back as she spotted the Saotome dad running straight towards them.
“Mr. Saotome?” Ryoga asked, confirming he saw Genma arriving too.
“There you children are!” Genma said as he stopped right in front of his son, placed his hands on his knees to regain his breath, then grabbed Ranma by the shoulders. “Ranma!”
“Uh…” the boy replied. “That is me, yes…”
“Be prepared for anything, boy! You will be facing strong opponents today!” Ranma’s dad said with a serious smile. “Consider this valuable training! We’ll make a man amongst men of you yet, won’t we, boy!?”
“Yeah… Yeah! Aye!!” Ranma smiled further the more he got into his dad’s speech. Wait, no, if Ranko was no longer in control, then Ranma would be absolutely awful at martial arts gymnastics! Akane had to stop it!
“Thank you mister Saotome, but we really need to get going—” Akane tried to pull Ranma away by the shoulders but he batted her hands away.
“SAOTOME WAR CRY, GO!” the parent and child shouted in sync with fire in their eyes. “Break our bones and we break loose! The Saotomes never lose!!”
“Atta, boy!” Genma offered a thumb up. “I’m counting on you to give us an amazing performance!”
“I will, Pops!” Ranma replied with his signature cocky smile. Oh, did Akane hate that smile. It was always a warning sign of troubles ahead.
Genma’s abdomen suddenly grumbled. He clutched at it in pain. “Urgh… I think I drank too many free sports drinks!”
As Genma ran back into the crowd, Akane resigned herself to knowing they would have to rely entirely on Ryoga if they wanted to reach the finals. “What does that even mean? Isn’t this warcry saying if you find yourself in a losing position, you would flee?”
Ranma snapped his head towards her, looking genuinely hurt. “C’mon, ‘Kane, don’t analyze it! It’s just cool!”
“Good grief…” As stupid as he acted, she hated even more the fact him being in his girl form during all of this made his stupidity look endearing instead.
A young woman, well dressed in a referee outfit, climbed into the ring. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Rythmic Gymnastic Martial Arts tournament is about to begin! Please find a free seat in the bleachers quickly!” The last few spectators hurried to do so, while the contestants waited near the sparring field.
Ranma grumbled as he spotted Tatewaki waving at them. The kendo master, wearing a sparkling jumpsuit more appropriate for Elvis Presley than a teenager with delusions of grandeur, pointed at Akane before giving Ranma a thumbs up. Ranma grimaced.
One of the ladies at the judge panel continued after her colleague. “Martial-arts fans from all around Nerima: thank you for waiting. The contest will be starting with teams F and H!”
“Will the contestants please enter the ring?” the referee finished.
Since they had registered last, that meant Akane, Ranma and Ryoga were team H. The three of them stood up and jumped onto the stage before waving at the crowd. Facing them was an all women team in brown leotards, with the kanjis for Matsuburi Buta in cream white on the front.
“Oi, Ryoga, ain’t that your hometown’s team?” Ranma asked.
“Oh my,” one of the three piped up, “What are you doing here, bandana kid? Didn’t we tell you gymnastics is a women’s sport?”
“And… begin!” the referee announced.
Thirty seconds later, Ryoga stood on the other side of the ring, his ribbon still twirling above his head, as his unconscious opponents fell back down to the ground one by one. The bell rang.
“Gymnastics is for everyone!” he shouted, turning to the crowd. “A boy can like cooking, and sewing, and all these ‘girly’ things! I would know, I tried all of these, yet I haven’t exactly stopped being a boy!”
...He might not be able to recognize his own abilities, but reaching the finals would be easier than she had expected, Akane thought.
Called to the stage next were teams A and D — the Kunos were A, of course. Kodachi must’ve been a minor celebrity in the gymnastics martial arts scene judging by the roars of the crowd as she and her brother took the stage.
“Uh… Where’s your third?” the referee asked.
“A question most justified!” Tatewaki replied. “I believe them to be late. No matter, I have faith they will show up before the end of the competition! So were the terms of the deal!”
The judges deliberated between themselves, eventually coming to an agreement. “If your third partner does not show up in time for the finals, your team will be disqualified.”
“OH HO HO HO HO HO! Fine by me!“ Kodachi did a little pirouette, turning herself towards the opposing team. “It just gives me more time to put on a dazzling performance while the stage is all mine!”
“Do not forget me, sister dearest!” Tatewaki interrupted, his smile and crossed arms doing little to hide the vein popping up on his forehead.
“Oh, how could I ever,” she replied in a sarcastic tone.
For as much as they got in each other’s faces, they certainly knew how to work together. After toying with their opponents for some time to rack up style points, Kodachi effortlessly immobilizing one of her opponents with her ribbon while Tatewaki enthusiastically clubbed the other two, Kodachi jumped off of her brother’s shoulders, leaping into the air like an angel, before finishing up their neatly lined up, bruised adversaries with a dive, striking all three of them with a rubber ball.
The quarter and semifinals went quite the same as the previous matches, leaving the five of them to patiently wait in the ring for the arrival of the Kunos’ third member.
Ranma idly practiced twirling his ribbon, his patience running thin. “Is your third gonna make us wait that damn long!?”
Tatewaki sat down and crossed his legs. “Patience, sapphic Ranko. Patience is what you seek.” He pointed his index upwards, closing his eyes. “In such a situation where you can only wait… Meditate. Do not delay, lest you later regret it. The Buddha, Sallekha Sutta.”
“So do ya just select half-fittin’ quotes and force them into what you're sayin’, or?” Ranma growled.
Tatewaki opened one eye. “Any time and place is a good occasion for the teachings of the Buddha.”
“Well, since we’re already waiting…” Kodachi slithered next to Ranma, making him uncomfortable. “Could you point me to your brother in the crowd? Surely he would not miss his lover’s big moment?”
“Enough, foolish sister!” Tatewaki exclaimed. “There is much too little reason to speculate on Saotome Ranma and his friend’s sexualities!”
“And yet you allow yourself to call the shots on my friends Akane and Ranko, hmm?” Kodachi replied.
Tatewaki stood up suddenly, tightly balling his fist. “The situation is nothing alike! Lesbians are wielders of the world's greatest swords, they are warriors of talent that deserve respect! Of course I would devote myself to recognizing, respecting and defending their existence!”
Kodachi shook her head. “To that I reply, men blessed by Achilles are precious masters of empathy, they are emotional altruists that deserve the world’s celebration and protection!”
“FOR THE LAST TIME, NONE OF US ARE DANG TOGETHER!!” Ranma screamed at the top of his lungs, prompting the crowd to attention.
Tatewaki looked at Ranma with a frown on his face, before a flicker of understanding appeared in his warm, dumb eyes. “Aaaah. I see.” He winked conspiratorially twice. “Yes, you are indeed single and straight, you can count on me to say as much to anybody who would listen. We wouldn’t want them forcing you out of the closet, after all.”
“I ain’t in no cupboard, either!!” Ranma replied, balling his fist in front of his face.
“Ranma I don’t think that’s what he… urgh, nevermind.” Akane said.
“Sister!” Tatewaki announced. “You have understood, haven’t you!? Saotome Ranma and his friend are single as well!”
Kodachi looked at Ryoga as if demanding a confirmation. She jumped to assuming when the pig boy merely replied with dead fish eyes. “Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Yes, I verily agree, brother dearest! Oh ho ho ho ho ho!”
Akane was almost relieved when she heard a frantic stomp coming from the changing rooms.
The relief didn’t last long as a giant panda jumped on stage.
“P-Pops!?” Ranma shrieked, taken aback. “What are ya doin’ here!?” His eyes darted around in the crowd, looking for Nabiki. When he finally found her, her devious smile was all he needed to understand what her contingency plan had been.
The panel of judges recoiled in their seats. “T-That’s your third member!?” one of them piped up.
“The brave animal…! One of the cages in its zoo needs repairs, and they are so underfunded, you see…!” Ranma was concerned by how genuine Tatewaki’s tears were. “Since more money is of no use to us, you can understand our charity!” The Kunos and their money would soon be parted if they didn’t learn to spot his pop’s lies soon, Ranma thought.
“I-it’s okay, it’s okay!” the judge replied, waving his hands. “Uhh… Does it understand the rules?”
Genma lifted up a wooden placard with the word “Yes”.
Akane tightened her grip on her ribbon. Ryoga was the only one on par with Kodachi, so those two would probably fight it on, but she would have to keep an eye out for any surprise attack the Kuno sister could try to sneak on Ranma or her. Speaking of Ranma, he would probably fixate exclusively on his dad… So that left Tatewaki. He mostly had a supportive role to his sister from the matches she had watched, and she had a slight edge on him, but she really wasn’t confident in her gymnastics abilities.
“This is one last reminder that tools must be used in all attacks! Barehanded strikes are forbidden, so are bear handed ones!” The referee, after observing each contestant for a second, quickly lowered her hand. “And… begin!”
Kodachi was the first to strike, ensnaring Ranma’s hand in her ribbon after ignoring his pitiful attempt at a counter-attack.
“Lemme go! Lemme go, dangit!” Ranma pulled and pulled, to no avail.
“Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho! I am ever so sorry, Ranko friend, but I’m afraid I will not lose this fight!” Kodachi boasted before having to dodge a club attack from Ryoga. “Admirable attempt, handsome face, but you won’t catch me off guard as easily as your lover’s sister!”
“Raaaah!!” Ryoga raged. “And why the ‘handsome’, too!!? I’m delicate! De-li-cate!”
In his anger, he missed a second ribbon coming from Tatewaki, which quickly wrapped itself around his hand. The two Kunos twisted their ribbons together until Ryoga and Ranma had their hands ensnared right against one another.
After dispatching Genma much too easily for her tastes with a single strike of a club that sent him unconscious, Akane turned around to see the trap the two boys had fallen right into. “Aaaand we’re doomed,” she muttered to herself.
“Lemme go! Stop pullin’!” Ranma complained.
“You’re the one that’s pulling!” Ryoga retorted.
Ranma’s eyes suddenly narrowed and he looked straight at the ceiling. Akane followed his gaze just in time to see it explode into pieces in a loud boom, a figure falling along with the debris. Wielding an oversized club, it dove straight for Ranma, who tripped up Ryoga during his dodge.
In the middle of the arena stood a young girl with blue hair made up in two buns.